John Angelo Valdemar Østergaard Hansen, known simply as John Hansen, (24 June 1924 – 12 January 1990) was a Danish
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who played as a
forward. He played professionally for seven years in Italy: he scored 124 goals in 187 matches for
Juventus FC
Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...
, and won two
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
championships with the club, finishing as ''
Capocannoniere
The ''capocannoniere'' award (; ), known as Paolo Rossi Award since 2021, is awarded by the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC) to the highest goalscorer of each season in Italy's Serie A. From the 2010–11 season unti the change of denomina ...
'' top-goal scorer in the
1951–52 Serie A
The 1951-52 Serie A was the fiftieth edition of the Italian Football Championship. It was the nineteenth Italian Football Championship branded Serie A, since Serie A was launched in 1929. This was the twenty-sixth season from which the Italian Fo ...
season; he later also played for Italian club
S.S. Lazio. He won the 1944
Danish championship with childhood club
BK Frem
Boldklubben Frem (also known as Frem, BK Frem or BK Frem Copenhagen) is a Danish sports club based in the Valby- Sydhavnen area of Copenhagen. It is best known for its semi-professional football team and its youth academy. Since its foundatio ...
. Hansen scored 10 goals in eight games for the
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team ( or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark and Greenland in men's international Association football, football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing body for ...
in 1948, and won a
bronze medal
A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...
with Denmark at the
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...
. In 1985, Hansen received the Italian order of chivalry.
He was the son of Danish international goalkeeper
Niels Peder Hansen, who also played for BK Frem, and was the father of Henning Hansen, who played for BK Frem in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Playing career
Amateur career
Born in
Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...
, Hansen started his career with
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
club
BK Frem
Boldklubben Frem (also known as Frem, BK Frem or BK Frem Copenhagen) is a Danish sports club based in the Valby- Sydhavnen area of Copenhagen. It is best known for its semi-professional football team and its youth academy. Since its foundatio ...
in the amateur-only Danish league. He played as a
left inside wing, was a world-class header of the ball, and could kick the ball equally hard with both legs. With BK Frem, Hansen won the 1944
Danish championship, and was the top goal-scorer of the
1948 Danish championship tournament.
Hansen made his debut for the
Danish national team in June 1948,
and scored three goals in his first two international games. Playing in the Danish amateur league and having played just two international games, he was not well known outside
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
until he was selected for the Danish team at the
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...
in London. Hansen scored seven goals in four games as Denmark won
bronze medal
A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...
s at the tournament, including four goals in Denmark's 5–3 win against the
Italy national team.
Hansen's Olympic performance made his name well known across Europe, and drew the attention of several Italian teams. He signed a professional contract in late 1948, which spelled the end of his career in the amateur-only Danish national team following eight games and 10 goals in the span of four months.
Professional career

Hansen was almost hired by Italian club
A.C. Torino, but arch rival
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
club
Juventus FC
Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...
eventually secured Hansen's signature.
BK Frem's president got a call from a director at Nordisk
FIAT
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
Copenhagen, referred by FIAT and Juventus owner
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat S.p.A., Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial ...
, who desperately wanted him to sign Hansen for his club. As Hansen was an amateur, he was free to move and promptly signed a three-year contract with Juventus on 16 November 1948 for
DKK111,111.11 ($23,500). He was given the
number 10 shirt, and made his debut three days later against
A.S. Bari. Hansen's first season did not start well for a tall and strong man not used to work on defense, and after 12 games the Italy national team coach was called just to verify that he was the same player who had scored the four goals against them at the Olympics. Hansen ended his first season with 15 goals in 24 games.
In his second season,
Jesse Carver
Jesse Carver (7 July 1911 – 29 November 2003) was an English football player and manager, best remembered for his management of some of Europe's finest clubs.
Club career
Carver started out in football as a player, joining Blackburn Rovers ...
replaced fellow
Englishman
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...
William Chalmers as head coach of Juventus, and a less rigid and physically demanding training schedule paid off for Hansen. In the 1949–50 Juventus team, Hansen had an irreplaceable partner in another Danish player from the 1948 Olympics team,
Karl Aage Præst. Præst was a
left winger
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...
with electric
dribbling
In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score.
As ...
skills who scattered opponents through the field and produced precise
crosses to Hansen, who netted them thanks to his violent and precise header.
Juventus won the
1949–50 Serie A
The 1949-50 Serie A was the forty-eighth edition of the Italian Football Championship. It was the seventeenth Italian Football Championship branded Serie A, since Serie A was launched in 1929. This was the twenty-fourth season from which the It ...
championship with Hansen scoring 28 goals in 37 games.
In 1950, Hansen and Præst were joined by another Dane, captain of the 1948 Olympic team
Karl Aage Hansen, who came from Serie A league rivals
Atalanta Bergamo.
The great level of understanding of those three great Danes made John Hansen feel as if he could play with his eyes closed, showing all of his skills. Not the kind of player to be present at every moment during a game, he was a very prolific goal scorer. Though he was not fast by Serie A standard,
he was smart at the moment of getting unmarked and losing his defender, and had an incredible feeling for being at the right spot on the right moment. During the
1951–52 Serie A
The 1951-52 Serie A was the fiftieth edition of the Italian Football Championship. It was the nineteenth Italian Football Championship branded Serie A, since Serie A was launched in 1929. This was the twenty-sixth season from which the Italian Fo ...
season, Hansen scored 30 goals, earning him the "
Capocannoniere
The ''capocannoniere'' award (; ), known as Paolo Rossi Award since 2021, is awarded by the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC) to the highest goalscorer of each season in Italy's Serie A. From the 2010–11 season unti the change of denomina ...
" Italian top goal-scorer title, as he won his second Serie A championship with Juventus. He spent six seasons at Juventus where he scored 124 goals in 187 games in the Serie A.
He moved to league rivals
S.S. Lazio in 1954, where he played for one season and scored 15 goals in 27 games. He ended his Italian adventure in 1955 and moved back to Denmark. The strictly amateur
Danish Football Association
The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...
would not allow ex-professional John Hansen to play in the Danish leagues, and he and fellow Olympic teammate and ex-professional
Jørgen Leschly Sørensen took to playing exhibition games. These games had free admittance and gathered such large crowds, that the Danish Football Association in 1958 decided to allow ex-professionals to reenter the Danish league, albeit only after serving a two-year quarantine. Hansen returned to play for BK Frem, where he ended his playing career in 1960.
Coaching career
During his ban from playing football in 1956 and 1957, Hansen coached BK Frem alongside
Erling Sørensen.
In February 1969, Hansen became a member of the selection committee which selected the players for the Danish national team. At the same time he agreed a one-year deal to replace Erik Hansen as part-time tactical coach of the national team, where he worked in tandem with physical trainer
Henry From.
They managed Denmark to five victories, one draw, and three defeats in nine games. When the year was up, Hansen refused to prolong the arrangement, urging the Football Association to hire a full-time national team coach. Austrian
Rudi Strittich
Rudi Strittich (3 March 1922 – 11 July 2010) was an Austrian association football, football coach and former player.
Club career
Strittich debuted for SK Vorwärts Steyr, Vorwärts Steyr, and later played for First Vienna FC. While with First ...
was named national team coach in 1970, replacing both Hansen and From, and John Hansen went on to only serve in the selection committee.
Career statistics
International goals
:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first.''
Honours
Club
Frem
*
Danish football championship
The Danish football champions are the winners of the highest league of football in Denmark. The title has been contested since 1913, in a varying form of competitions. Since 1991, the winners have been found through the Danish Superliga championsh ...
: 1943–44
Juventus
*
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
:
1949–50,
1951–52
International
Denmark
*
Olympic Bronze Medal:
1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
Individual
*
Danish 1st Division Top Goalscorer: 1947–48
*
Summer Olympic Football Tournament Top-scorer:
1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
*
Serie A Team of The Year
The AIC Serie A Team of the Year (in Italian: ''Squadra dell’anno AIC'') is an annual award given to a set of eleven footballers in the top tier of Football in Italy, Italian football, the Serie A, who are considered to have performed the best d ...
: 1951, 1952
*
Italian Serie A Top Goalscorer:
1951–52
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, John Angelo
1924 births
1990 deaths
Footballers from Frederiksberg
Men's association football forwards
Danish men's footballers
Denmark men's international footballers
Danish expatriate men's footballers
Danish football managers
Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Olympic footballers for Denmark
Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark
Boldklubben Frem players
Juventus FC players
SS Lazio players
Serie A players
Expatriate men's footballers in Italy
Boldklubben Frem managers
Denmark national football team managers
Olympic medalists in football
Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy
20th-century Danish sportsmen